“I CAN’T believe how many black men are becoming Muslim in London… after the way they treat their women.” I once heard this statement being made one evening a long time ago, before I knew anything about Islam. The above statement makes an assumption about Islam, even though it does not assert that assumption directly. …
Nicky Gumbel, 1994, Searching Issues, Kingsway Publications, England p.31 I WAS reading Searching Issues by Nicky Gumbel (of Alpha / Holy Trinity Brompton fame) recently and I came across the above statement in the second chapter, ‘What About Other Religions?‘ The question I want to address here is whether this is true. The actual context …
ONE OF the biggest disservices to Islam has been to put it into the ‘Ethnic religion’ category in the thoughts of many, along with Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, but probably not Judaism. Many people consider Islam the religion of Pakistanis (which is odd, as it has its roots in Arabia).
A friend sent me an article in the last few days by a sister about her choice to wear hijab. It was like others I had read before: a defensive response to the perceptions of others. ‘So next time you see me,’ the author concludes, ‘don’t look at me sympathetically. I am not under duress …
Today I felt a discomfort in my soul, like on another day a week or two ago. There was no reason for it really, but for a moment, seeking something in common with my peers, I complained aloud about my Project Manager. I fed upon my own boss’ cynicism about her abilities and complained that …
This morning my car wouldn’t start, so I had to call out the AA. It is funny how something foreign can become so familiar within such a short space of time, such that something we could once do without becomes something we take for granted. And it is funny how when something is always there, …
As the British government promises to drop the debt owed to it by the world’s poorest countries, I consider the carefully avoided, unasked question
Textbooks make up ninety percent of Africa’s total book production. Whilst the continent’s population makes up twelve percent of the global figure, it produces only one percent of the world’s books. As a result, the remaining ten percent of Africa’s book production, which includes liturgical materials, academic books and gray literature, makes up a tiny …
ONE MAY wonder why I would choose to write reflections on The Letter from James.1 The answer primarily boils down to a personal reason. From the time I was about fifteen, I slipped almost continually between atheism, agnosticism, deism and doubt. During my second stay on the Isle of Iona2, overwhelmed by emotion and the …
It’s strange. To the other tenents in my flat I was ‘nice’. I was a bit quiet, quite polite, considerate and gentle. I was just, to them, ‘nice’. But suddenly, one day, I was a manifestation of evil. Someone to be ignored and hated. No more patronising “Oh, you’re so good”s when they found me …
GOD SAYS in the Qur’an: ‘Surely does God hold the heavens and the earth, lest they cease. And if they should cease, none can hold them after Him.’ (Fatir, 35:41) And: ‘And if God were to impose blame upon the people for what they have earned, He would not leave upon it any creature. But …
Water being the physical source of life,
In 1990, Middle Eastern Oil reserves were believed to account for 65.5 percent of the world total. This region is of, if now declining, importance to the global economy, and within the region, Iran has played an important part. In this article, I look at the development of the oil industry in Iran from 1900 …
You said we could speak about it if I ever needed to, but I knew we never could and never would. I know your hate for Islam; I have seen it in your face when watching television or when it comes up in a conversation. In the summer, X was trying to think of the …
Is it that you try to steal my identity? You take my name, and thinking yourself Italian, you mould it and morph it, and make it your own. But, oh, my dear friend, I am the original egotist. The Neurocentric, centred on himself; on his own wants and desires, and on his complaints about the …
